A Study Protocol to Assess the Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices Related to Oral Health among Nursing Students in DMIHER (DU)

Abstract Background: Nursing student’s dental health education model is aimed at orienting nursing students with oral health knowledge so that these students must be knowledgeable about dental health to implement it in their daily practices, and thus, they can play a vital part in health education and serve as the ideal role model for patients and the community. Therefore, a questionnaire-based survey is to be conducted to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices related to oral health among nursing students in Sawangi, Wardha, Maharashtra, India. Materials and Methods: Around 440 nursing students will be participating in the questionnaire-based cross-sectional study for 2 months. The population will be taken from the nursing college of Datta Meghe Institute of Higher Education and Research (Deemed to be University), Sawangi Meghe, Wardha. The validated questionnaires will be circulated among the nursing students with the consent of the participation for the participants in study. After receiving the feedback of the questionnaires, the data will be observed, analyzed, and resulted. Expected Results: More than 80% is expected to have knowledge that toothbrushing prevents caries and gingival bleeding, and bleeding gum indicates gum disease. More than 90% may show a positive attitude toward the importance of oral health and considered that it is as important as other systemic health. Around 90% of students are expected to have a positive attitude toward dental floss and mouthwash helps in keeping the teeth clean. More than 90% of students are expected to brush their teeth twice daily and around 50% of students are expected to visit dental clinic regularly for routine dental checkup. Conclusion: The present study will show significant knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding oral health among nursing students. Therefore, our study’s findings might fill the void and provide a sound basis for developing evidence-based oral health reinforcement programs to reduce the discrepancy in oral health knowledge, attitude, and practices.